McGreevey's out, but the inside game in Trenton goes on

When administrations change, more than furniture gets rearranged in Trenton.

Contracts change hands, appointments to extremely lucrative counsel positions within the myriad of state authorities get handed out to favored law firms and power brokers cash in their chips.

The spoils of victory, however, are different when a new rider gets on the same horse.

Last week's stunning admission by Democratic Gov. James E. McGreevey that he placed a gay lover on the state payroll, and his decision to leave office in November, will soon bring a new administration to the Statehouse.

Senate President Richard Codey, also a Democrat, becomes acting governor upon McGreevey's resignation. Unless Republicans are successful in pressing for McGreevey's immediate resignation or Codey is pushed aside in a surprise party coup, the senator from Essex County is likely to remain as the state's chief executive through next year.

With the same party remaining in charge, few expect major changes to the inside game played in Trenton -- which rewards the friends of those in power. But, as former Gov. Thomas Kean notes, Codey now controls the game board. Turnover of contracts or appointments could indeed come, he said, depending on who the players are.

"It would be up to Codey," Kean said. "The governor has the prerogative for contracts, especially those for law firms."

However it all plays out, there will most certainly be some fallout as a result of the power shift.

"Whenever a new governor comes in, there are changes," said Jon Shure, who served as communications director for former Gov. James Florio. "There is a new inner circle. There is a new outer circle. There is a new frame of reference."

Yet Shure, now president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a nonprofit group that studies state issues, said the political spoils within what will essentially be a restructured administration are less clear-cut.

When the Democrats took Trenton from the Republicans with McGreevey's election, law firms like Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer -- whose partners and employees contributed more than $255,000 to the governor's various political campaigns -- reaped the rewards, landing a position as lead counsel to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. Angelo Genova, the attorney for the Democratic State Committee, became labor counsel for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.

Shure said McGreevey's biggest contributors and political patrons -- including former state Sen. John Lynch, whose Middlesex County power base helped put McGreevey into office -- do not owe anything to Codey.

Still, he thought it unlikely that there will be significant changes for those who prospered under McGreevey, or enjoyed greater access to the administration, even within a factionalized party like the Democrats.

"Any time there is a change in power, the power brokers have to react to that," Shure said. "But it's not like they have to find new ways of access. They know the Senate president."

Former state Sen. Donald T. DiFrancesco once found himself in the very same position that Codey now faces. When Republican Gov. Christie Whitman resigned to become the federal Environmental Protection Agency administrator, the Union County Republican -- then Senate president -- became the acting governor for the remainder of her term.

"Our situation was not as polarized as it is in the Democratic Party," recalled DiFrancesco, now back in private law practice. "There are obviously different factions in the Democratic Party."

DiFrancesco made no wholesale changes, and kept the Whitman- appointed Cabinet in place except for those who left on their own.

Noting that Codey has weathered political battles with Lynch and Camden County Democratic political power George Norcross, DiFrancesco suggested there is a great deal more friction, and cross- interests, within the Democratic Party than he ever saw as acting governor.

"We were on the same page, and Dick (Codey) represents one of several factions. There might be more change," he said. "But I think Dick Codey will do a fine job. He knows all the issues."

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, a Union County power broker who was one of those instrumental in McGreevey's successful 2001 gubernatorial campaign, doubts a new Codey administration will make a list of winners and losers.

"Dick Codey wants to have a successful administration, and he cannot afford to put anyone on the outs," Lesniak observed. "He needs as much support as he can get for his policies or potential campaign for governor next year. I don't see anyone on the outs."

Neither does Republican strategist Tom Wilson, who predicted the biggest changes will be among those Codey selects as his advisers.

"There are people they trust, and you want people who will protect your administration and be loyal," Wilson said. "It's the senior staff and senior chiefs; there certainly will be that kind of change- over."

Wilson noted that any new administration would want to avoid the kind of pay-to-play scandals that marred McGreevey's tenure.

State Sen. Bernard Kenny of Hudson County said the Democratic Party has to concentrate on uniting itself.

"I believe we have to stick together and have to heal the party because this was a trauma to the body politic, and those of us in leadership positions have to lead," Kenny remarked. The short-term goal for Democrats, he said, has to be to deliver the state for John Kerry.

As for the splintered nature of the various state Democratic Party factions, Kenny said it is not unexpected.

"Caucus politics is the toughest and the most ruthless politics, because you have colleagues competing against each other. When it comes to leadership fights, people are trying to advance their careers, and it's tough stuff," he said.

Codey himself holds power by the most tenuous of circumstances. He becomes acting governor only by virtue of the vote of his fellow Democratic senators, who selected him as president.

By tradition, it is a leadership role that runs for the term of the Legislature. However, by law the Senate president serves at the pleasure of his or her colleagues.

"At any time, it is the will of 21 senators that elects a Senate president," explained Albert Porroni, executive director of the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.

The Senate could conceivably vote to make anyone else president at any time, and thus anoint a new acting governor.

It has never happened, said Porroni.

"It would be quite unusual," he said, after one of the most unusual weeks in the history of New Jersey politics.